“I am beside myself. It’s extremely exciting,” she said. “I won a
veritable professional lottery. It is every media coordinator’s dream to
start a library.”

Iglio isn’t the only one eagerly awaiting the opening of Henderson
County’s newest school. Up and down the halls, classrooms are full of brand
new furniture and supplies brought in by teachers to give the pristine
rooms some life.

Principal Kevin Weis has also been spending a lot of time at Sugarloaf,
which will be ready to open when school begins Aug. 25. The former six-year
principal of Hillandale Elementary said only minor furniture issues and
some cleanup are left to be dealt with, and a few teachers still have to
set up their rooms.

“As a principal, you don’t very often get to start a school from
scratch,” Weis said.

Last week, Iglio helped nload 8,000 brand new books in the media center,
which is bright and open with lots of lights and windows, new seats, tables
and chairs, bookshelves and computers. A full range of books from The
Oregon Trail and Little Red Riding Hood to Jokelopedia line the shelves in
the aqua and yellow room.

New technology is also available, including a mobile laptop lab that can
be checked out by teachers, a Smart Board in the computer lab that adjoins
the center and a document camera.

As media coordinator, Iglio will see every student at least once a week.
She said children today are more visually oriented, and she already has
lots of fun, educational activities in mind because it takes more to keep
them engaged.

“My aim is for it to be a very, very busy place,” she said.

The basics

Sugarloaf will mostly serve students transferred from Clear Creek and
Dana elementaries to alleviate overcrowding, and the move will mean losing
some mobile classroom units at those schools.

The staff of 75 to 80 will also be diverse. About 10 teachers are coming
from Clear Creek, two or three from Dana, four from Fletcher and seven from
Edneyville elementaries. A fulltime counselor will be stationed at the
school. Sugarloaf is the mirror image of Clear Creek, Weis said. The layout
is the same but was flipped so it would fit on the site.

The school is built for growth. There’s room for 725 students, although
they will start with 480 to 500 students, Weis said. There will probably be
empty classrooms to start, and there’s also plenty of storage space in the
building.

Each classroom will have at least three computers and a TV equipped for
school-wide broadcasts, as well as a phone intercom system. There will be
two fifth-grade classrooms, three fourth-grade rooms, four third-grade
rooms, five second-grade rooms, four first-grade and four kindergarten
rooms.

With supplies and teachers coming from several schools, “the biggest
challenge will be making sure we have all the instructional materials,”
Weis said.

Construction began almost three years ago, but heavy rains during the
groundbreaking caused some delays, pushing the opening date back a year.
Today, Weis’ only concern is trying to grow grass on the front lawn despite
the drought.

“It’s just a beautiful school. It’s laid out really well,” said Henderson
County Schools Superintendent Stephen Page. “It may be the prettiest school
in the system.”

Page said he thinks students and parents will be impressed by the
building, especially since some students come from economically
disadvantaged areas and don’t live in places quite as nice. It should be a
morale boost for teachers, he added, adding that the school is well
ventilated with heating and air conditioning.

Instead of only offering art or music, Weis came up with a plan to make
sure students have both. A teacher will come to the school to teach music
for the first semester, and will then trade schools with another teacher,
who will come in to teach cultural arts for the second semester.

The school offers some green features, including a heat recovery type of
system, efficient lighting and waterless urinals to cut back on water
usage. There is also no ability to fry foods at Sugarloaf or any county
school, which is an effort to be more responsible for students’ diets, Page
said.

The building’s modern facilities are designed to meet today’s code
requirements, and include handicapped-accessible bathrooms and a sprinkler
system. Contractors also built soundproof, sloped metal roofs that need
less repair and replacement over the years.

The gym is large and includes new basketball hoops and bleachers, a stage
and restrooms. It’s one of the highlights for Weis, who remembers having
portable basketball hoops with bent rims in a gym half the size at
Hillandale.

Students won’t have a playground at first, Weis said. Parent-teacher
associations and grants usually provide funds for equipment, and it’s his
goal to have a playground in the future. For now, teachers will have to be
resourceful and use open fields for play. Teachers have also expressed an
interest in having a nature trail, he said.

The children, their parents and the staff will choose the mascot, Weis
added.

“That will be a very cool community-school building activity,” he
predicted.

A top-notch staff

Weis had to fill 22 teaching positions. At first he found that teachers
were happy where they were and many didn’t want to change schools. But
others saw it as a great opportunity to be a part of something new and as
he went to the schools to recruit staff for his team, more came on board.
“I found some great people. I think this staff is outstanding,” Weis said.
“It’s really been a very pleasant part of this whole process.”

Page said it’s no surprise to him that Iglio and other staff members are
spending part of their summer in the building.

“Teachers give a lot of their time and they sacrifice,” he said. “You’ll
find teachers at school all summer long.”

Orientation will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Aug. 22 for kindergarten
parents and students, and from 1-4 p.m. for other grade levels to meet
their teachers. An open house will also be scheduled a month into the
school year.